


Within the Lunar Colony

by PervDia



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: AU - ATF!Stiles, Alive Hale Family, Lots of public nudity!, M/M, Magic, Nudity, Off screen gore, Public Nudity, Rituals, Sacrifices, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-08-17
Updated: 2013-10-06
Packaged: 2017-12-23 19:45:26
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 10
Words: 20,363
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/930350
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PervDia/pseuds/PervDia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Stiles is with the ATF. He's been assigned to find out if a nudist colony setup in Northern California is up to no good. A few people seem to have gone missing after joining them. Are they a cult? Drug runners? Sex trade? What's their secret?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> My beta is back with me for another longish fic. All thanks to [unrepentantdom](http://archiveofourown.org/users/unrepentantdom).

"Bilinski!" 

Stiles flailed out of his half comatose state upon hearing something similar to his name yelled. It was pointless to try to correct Commanding Officer Finstock. Stiles was one of 12 new recruits to this office of the ATF in the last 3 months, and just going from the stat sheets of his fellow rookies, Stiles was the weakest link. Sure, he scored high on all the written exams, but his ranged weapons work and his physical stamina never really pushed too much past what he could do in high school.

Stiles entered the office fully expecting to be sent away or maybe to get fired. Most got called to Finstock's for field assignments, but in the three months Stiles had been on duty he wasn't even given a proper advisor to help train him. None were available. Instead, he spent most of his time on paperwork and researching with larger teams when they needed him.

"Ah, there he is. Quit hanging out by the door Bilinski, and sit down. This is Special Agent Argent with the FBI. She's looking to borrow you for a month or two."

Stiles noticed the pretty brunette even before Finstock pointed her out. He also pegged her for FBI, considering the well fitted but not expertly tailored dark blue pant suit, and the standard issue under her left arm, and the other smaller .25 she had in the small of her back. She was young, about 23, impressive for an FBI agent. Impressive or well connected.

"It's well connected." She said holding her hand out with a smirk.

Stiles ever the gentlemen took the offered hand in a firm shake. "How well connected? Can you get him to say my name right?" He asked conspiratorially. 

"No. But you are exactly what I'm looking for on this assignment." She roved her eyes over his body like he was a prize pig to be judged at the county fair. Well maybe not a pig, maybe a slender goat or something.

"Um…" Stiles had people checking him out before. It came with the territory. It was part of the job to get sized up by both peers and outsiders. Especially when Stiles barely tipped the scales at 160. It was all thin muscle on his 6ft frame, so most judged him to be a bit too scrawny to be in law enforcement of any kind. This FBI agent though, the way she looked at Stiles, unnerved him.  

"Your skin still falls off right?" Finstock plainly cut in while reviewing a file folder in front of him.

Stiles blanched, not knowing what to say.  "Yes, a little more than the rest of human population," Stiles said defensively. He didn't mean for it to be defensive. He didn't even know what this was about. But kids were cruel, and being different in any way meant cruel things were said and done. It had been years since his psoriasis had been brought up. And that was mainly because when he had really bad outbreaks his well layered wardrobe covered it up. He also made excuses to get out of any communal bathing situations or visits to pools.

The nice FBI Disney Princess lady put her hand over Stiles' in reassurance. If she wasn't so deadly and he wasn't so gay. And if he wasn't so socially backward when it came to anything other than making friends. Who was he kidding? He didn't make friends well either.

Finstock continued on not even bothering to notice Stiles' reaction or not caring. "It's an undercover operation. You were selected because of your medical history and your lack of relative identity among any agency. You will be using your real name and your real background up until 6 months ago when you joined the ATF. You will infiltrate and report back what you find to Agent Argent, who will be you handler and your contact on the outside. Do not engage anyone you suspect of anything. You are only to gather information. Gather information. In.for.ma.tion.al Gath.er.ing." Finstock looked up waiting for Stiles to nod his agreement before continuing. "Your cover story to meet will be she's the girlfriend or the ex-girlfriend you are trying to get back together with."

"That cover won't work." Agent Argent said with a knowing smile beamed over at Stiles. "I'll rework it in the profile."

Stiles batted his eyes at her suggestively. "I could pretend. You are attractive."

'Coach' Finstock looked confused at the turn of the conversation and ready to throw them out of his office for having some hidden code he didn't understand. "Whatever." He stood up from behind his desk, readying for an obvious dismissal. "Update the profile and have it on my desk in the morning. I also want regular updates. You're taking away my research guru. I expect him to come back to us unharmed, and with a favor owed to us from you."

Agent Argent held out her hand once again, this time for 'Coach'. "Thank you, Commander Finstock." 

He grunted at her nodding towards the door and sitting back down in his seat, he then bellowed for the next person waiting in the hall, "Greenberg!"

"You can call me Allison." The agent lead him away from Finstock's domain and down the hall to a small conference room. "We only have 4 days to get you debriefed and ready for this." 

She reached into a soft leather briefcase and handed him a novel sized folder that had 30 or so different color coded tabs sticking out of it in every direction. It would take him days to analyze all of this properly. "Where am I…?" Stiles' mouth stopped working for a second as he noticed the first item in the folder. It was directly on top and clipped to a carefully sleeved DVD. The brochure read: "Point Luna: A Naturalist Collective and Home."

Having psoriasis, Stiles knew what the place was without finishing the reading. One of the best known cures for the disease was sunlight, lots of sunlight directly to the affected areas. Those infected had only a few options in the United States. Get a membership at a tanning salon, get naked in your highly secure and private best friend's back yard to sun bathe, or if you were more adventurous… "a nudist colony."

 


	2. Old and New  Friends

Stiles opened his video chat. "Yo, Scott." He needed someone on his side in this and he had zero connections besides his old grade school buddy. 

"We talked about this Stiles. We can't play CoD while at work." Scott teased. 

Stiles held his breath a little at the site of the office behind his long time friend. The Beacon Hills Sheriff's station brought back lots of memories that Stiles worked hard to forget.

"Can't help it, I get bored. And I needed a special friend." 

"Then you should come visit." Scott said with practiced ease. 

"I'll be there in 6 hours. I have to clean some stuff up here." Stiles tried not to nervously smile and let his lips curl up like he was happy to see his bestest bud. "We can go for Coffee at Michelle's to catch up on things."

Scott smiled back and nodded before hanging up.

________

Stiles arrived in Beacon Hills about 2 hours later, and went to Pauline's:Burgers and Fries. The best place for curly fries that ever existed and the safe haven he and Scott picked long ago to meet if ever there was a problem. Scott already waited for him in their old booth.

"I thought we weren't going to use the cloak and dagger 'special friend' stuff until…you know…you got kidnapped or something." Scott looked at his friend worried. "You aren't kidnapped right now are you? No one put electroshock locks around your ankles or anything, right?"

"Nothing so dramatic, but my immediate superiors loaned me out to do some undercover work and I might need some back up since I don't know what's exactly going on yet."

Scott paused for a beat of consideration, then narrowed his eyes. "What's really wrong Stiles? That was too vague of a problem for a 'special friend' situation. And you would be super Christmas-morning-level excited about an assignment like that, not stressed out. What gives?" The worry in his friend's face bled away to that wounded puppy look. Damn him and his interrogation methods.

"I may havetobenakedfortheassignment." Stiles mumbled in a very low tone.

"Oh." Scott said.

As a long time brother from another mother, Scott understood Stiles issues with being naked. In first grade Scott saw the shunning by classmates when they were asked to hold hands with Stiles. Scott was the only one who would. Scott also stood at Stiles' side through most of the taunting and fights. Every year, all the way to college, Scott had his back, even if it was covered in gross flaky skin.

"Yeah. Oh." Stiles shoved more curly fries into his mouth. Comfort food comforted.

"Do you have a way of not doing it?"

"I'm apparently the only one who can and there's a possibility of people being in danger if I don't help." Stiles wiped his fingers by nervously twisting his napkin.

"Which of course means you're going to do this," Scott groaned in sympathy with Stiles, then put on his best cheer-up-buddy face. "You can do this, Stiles."

"I can do this." Stiles repeated. He humored his friend, because really he had no idea what he was going to do, and Scott would feel bad if Stiles wasn't feeling better. He would also try to fix things. The last thing Stiles needed was for Scott to get all maternal and call Stiles' office to try to get him off the case.

________

Stiles drove up to a small cabin outpost at the edge of what would be his new home for the next 6-8 weeks, at least that's what the mission profiled for, and this was the place to park cars and "leave belongings of the outside world". According to the DVD instructions, Stiles would only have access to a land line telephone in the main house. All cell phones, computers, cameras or recording devices were strictly prohibited. Anyone caught with such technology was banned from the facilities, and the equipment confiscated. It had been a 45 minute drive to the cabin and already Stiles suffered from withdrawal for his Samsung. He should never have left it with Scott. He should have at least had one last moment playing Fruit Ninja. Yeah. Right about now, he could seriously use the zen of repeatedly chopping up some fresh produce.

"Are you Stiles?" A very young girl said tapping on his jeep window.

Stiles, who was already nervous and lost in his own thoughts, had no idea anyone was nearby. When he pulled up, everything except for half a dozen leaf covered cars screamed abandoned wild west outpost, so of course he screamed, jumped rather high in his seat, and near strangled himself with his seatbelt in the process.

"Oh, shit." The young girl said overly concerned. "Are you alright?” She opened Stiles' car door to look him over. "I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to scare you. It's my first time with a new friend." The young girl, who was maybe 13, now that Stiles got a good look at her, leaned in to further explain with a whisper. "Whatever you do, don't tell mom I scared you. She'll never let me greet people again and I don't want to end up like Derek."

Stiles smiled. He liked this kid. "Who's Derek?"

"He's my stupid older brother. He's never allowed to greet people, not since he made the last two cry."

"He sounds charming." Stiles edged by the young girl who seemed to sniff him a little as he stumbled out of the jeep.

"Unfortunately, he actually is. He's just really protective of this place and doesn't like newbies much."

Stiles grabbed his bag, which didn't have many things in it since he couldn't bring anything that played the games he liked and clothes would be a missing thing. 

"Wait, wait, wait." The young girl batted her really big grey/green eyes at him while reaching for the bag. "I'm supposed to carry that for you."

Stiles chuckled, normally he would have been sputtering a mile a minute in a semi-nervous haze about anything, but this kid disarmed him just enough to take his mind off of the inevitable.

He handed her his one backpack. "I'll make sure to tell your mom you did your job well. The only thing I think I need to know to make sure everything goes smoothly is for you to tell me your name."

The girl smacked herself in the forehead, and then rubbed the tender spot as if she forgot her own strength. She blushed at her antics, shaking her head like she couldn't believe she just did that.

This was a kid after Stiles own heart. Hell, if she was a year or two younger she might even be Stiles' offspring judging from behavior alone. "Are you part House Elf? Your name's not Trinkie or Bizzie is it?"

The blush got more vibrant, especially around the ears. "No. My name's Anna." She smiled up at him with realization hitting her. "You like Harry Potter! I have all the books! You must play with us when we sort houses next Friday." She gripped his arm and dragged him down a small path away from the cabin into the woods. Girl had a strong grip. "Ohhh, it will be so much fun. It's been so long since someone new joined us."

A large sign, not more than 200 feet in front of them, hung over a picket fence. When Anna noticed it she stopped and turned to face Stiles. She cocked her head a little to the left like she was listening in on one of those hidden ear pieces all the government agencies used just to look cool. "I almost forgot." She held up her right hand, motioning for Stiles to do the same. "Do you swear you don't have any recording devices or computer equipment?"

"I swear. Not a thing." Stiles kept his hand up since she did too.

She cast a judgmental eye towards him, "Do you swear you are up to no good?" 

Stiles smiled at her. "I solemnly swear I'm up to no good. But I am a good guy and won't do anything against the rules."

She nodded approvingly at the answer reclaiming her hold on his arm before walking him up to and through the fence. Right. What was he so nervous about? Anna had clothes on. It wasn't like he had to stay naked the whole time. He had his own room to hide in if things got to be too much.

 _'Lies! Oh Crap. Such hotness exists in the world? HIDE!'_ Stiles' brain screeched all at once when he spotted the very tan, very well muscled dark haired male growling nakedly towards him and Anna. That scowl didn't look pleasant, no matter how much the rest of him would feature in Stiles spank fantasies. Instinctively, Stiles tried to step in front of the kid to protect her from the half crazy looking sex-appeal-is-my-personal-bitch guy, but Anna shifted around him and confronted the man.

"What are you doing here Derek?" Anna demanded with a near stomp of her foot.

"Mom should never have let you greet a 'friend' alone." The way Derek said the word 'friend' Stiles could have sworn he meant 'fiend'.

 "I'm old enough! Laura did as much when she was my age, and besides they already checked him out, and you know Cora followed me anyway!"

Another surly looking naked person almost instantaneously flanked Stiles from the left. This time it was a woman about half the body mass of the man and definitely related, if facial expressions were anything to go by. Of course Stiles screamed again. 

The new woman, definitely a woman, was maybe 20 and named Cora from the gist of the conversation. "Do you always scream so much?" Again with the sniffing? She employed more subtlety about it than Anna, but she did it and the big guy was doing it too. He made it part of his regular movements, like he was flaring his nostrils in annoyance at life and not trying to smell whatever baked good Stiles snuck onto property.

"That's enough." A calming voice broke through the tension. Unlike the others, Stiles had seen photos of the owner and head of Point Luna, Talia Hale. "Please excuse my children, they tend to get excited when new friends arrive."

 


	3. Sharing a Home

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Additional Chapter warnings in the end notes. 
> 
> As always, special thanks to [unrepentantdom](http://archiveofourown.org/users/unrepentantdom/pseuds/unrepentantdom) my wonderful amazing beta!!! Any issues you find in this work are because I can't leave well enough alone.

In the day prior to his arrival, Stiles had become acutely aware of the reason behind the FBI's need to have someone on the inside of Point Luna. The place was secure. Too Secure. It was family owned and run on private property, so there was no legal way of finding out who stayed or worked there. Especially seeing as the nudist colony wasn't the main business. Legally, the Hales owned a nature preserve and held seminars on "conservation, restoration, and the preservation of life." There were only a handful of employees listed and anyone else that lived on or visited the property were 'friends' or invited guests of the Hale family. The only way anyone even knew there were missing persons at all were because of the families that reported it long after the fact. 

"You're still nervous." Talia said quietly as she pat his hand. She had sent her children running with barely a look when she arrived. Well, all but Derek, who didn't run so much as stomp away in a broody storm cloud of disgruntled hate. That or Stiles' eyes were glued to Derek's butt as he walked away and therefore he couldn't really say how fast the others left, he just noticed they were gone when he looked back at Talia. "I am sorry your first impressions with my family weren't ideal." 

"It's okay, this is your home after all. I'm just grateful you're letting me stay with you." 

"For the duration of your stay, it's your home too Stiles." She gestured to the backpack he carried. "Is that all of your things? Should I send Anna back for the rest?"

"Um…I figured I wouldn't be wearing much." Stiles tried to hide the overwhelming fear in his voice, hoped it would simply sound like a nervous first timer.

Talia sighed heavily. "Each room has its own private balcony where you can enjoy nature as you see fit." She held his gaze and his hand. "You never have to leave your room without clothing. They're currently your armor and you have the right to protect yourself from anything you think might harm you," said the woman who wore nothing. Not a damn thing.

"Kind of defeats the purpose of coming to a nudist colony if I don't show off the goods." Stiles half mumbled to himself.

The woman had obviously dealt with this before and quickly cut to the real underlying problems. "Exhibitionism isn't the goal of a place like this. That's a form of sex, and nudity isn't about sex unless you make it that way. Since you came here for sun, you can get that in your room."

"Won't that make me the odd one out?" Stiles had enough of being the different one. Aside from being on a case right now that relied on getting people's trust, he had no intention of spending the entire time feeling like even more of a freak or outcast. Then again, the alternative was getting naked in front of strangers. Stiles. Strangers. Naked.

"Woah, woah. Calm down." Talia put a reassuring hand to his shoulder. "No one has the right to make anyone feel uncomfortable about any clothing decision here. Besides, you won't be the only one in clothes. My husband has a peculiar fondness for them, as does Deaton. You also know the rest of the family and friends will all be dressed for every dinner."

Stiles scrubbed a hand over his face wiping the corner of one of his eyes in memory of past family dinners, then let that go. The rules about dressing for evening meals were listed in the documentation he received, as a result he packed four of his nicer plaid shirts and three pairs of different styled khakis. His underwear occupied one side pocket and his socks the other. He figured that was plenty enough to wear if he was only going to have to worry about clothes for an hour or two a day. 

"I'm sure I'll be fine. Besides, I could use the exposure to new things. Get out of my shell." Stiles sniffed the air beating on his chest (slightly coughing). "You know, commune with Nature." Stiles reached for some manly bravado in that statement, when he flexed his arms and hands in one of his patented fidgets.

Judging the look Talia gave him, he's was pretty sure he came off more like a frightened bunny. "If you need to borrow a swim suit or anything else, please let me know." She said giving his shoulder a gentle squeeze.

The main compound was a huge mansion that the 'Friends' and some of the family lived in. The northern wing held the dining halls, a ballroom, and a rec. room that made Stiles wish Scott was there with him. Five family members currently lived in the west wing, Talia, her husband Greg, Derek, Cora and Anna. The east wing was where the friends lived. There were currently 7 others in residence, and of those, only one married couple. 

"Erica and Boyd can get a bit loud since they're newlyweds. I've put you at the end of the hall, furthest away from them." Talia spoke of them with a soft smile. They were true friends then. Loved like family. Good to know.

The older and still very naked woman continued her tour. "There are two full bathrooms in each wing, and four half baths on the main floor with a shower shed outside behind the Rose gate. There are three flora gates surrounding the main house. It's important that when you leave, you remember to close these behind you. While Hale property extends for miles in every direction, the main house is our sanctuary and those gates represent that. The kitchen is always open, but we mainly serve and have on hand raw or freshly grown ingredients." 

It was then that Stiles was lead into a huge room with a huge open inlaid wood burning oven. It stood taller than him and it intimidated him to think of everything that got cooked in it. Huge cast iron pots hung about the room like rustic decor, but he could see how giganticly huge meals were made here. Army size meals. 'Huge' themed everything about kitchen as well as the entire commune.

"Feel free to use any of the facilities at any time. Nothing is off limits except for the basement. We kindly ask that you avoid this area." 

Okay. First thing on the information gathering check list was the basement. He wouldn't risk going there now or even a week from now, too many eyes on him, but he would definitely search the basement before he left.

Stiles smiled. "Your home is lovely. Again I thank you for letting me stay with you."  Talia seemed like a really nice lady. How the hell did she get mixed up with guns, kidnapping and ritual sacrifices? "You said something about swim trunks? Do you have a pool?"

"No. Chlorine and the waste from a pool is not something we think very highly of, but we do have several streams on our property and one natural spring below this house. My daughter Laura is the current expert on our water systems and our water supply." 

Magically another naked woman sprang up into Stiles' view. He managed not to scream but still jumped high enough to lose his footing and nearly fall on his ass.

"Okay. Yeah, that was fun." The woman giggled. "Sorry. My sisters said they got a chance to scare you. I didn't want to be left out." 

Talia lifted her eyes to heaven, maybe asking for a new child.

The woman held out her hand for Stiles to shake. "I'm Laura, and to answer your question. No, you can't swim in the spring, but you can swim in the streams and Howl's Hollow. Which I can take you to, after you get some trunks and a shirt on." 

Stiles sputtered. "Why?" Was there a sign on his forehead that said he didn't want to get naked?  "You aren't wearing anything."

"If that's what you want," Laura sing-songed. "But you still need to change into some decent hiking shoes. Howl's isn't that close."

All of the Hales he'd met so far were strikingly beautiful. They featured bronze clear skin with dark brown, nearly raven hair. Not an ounce of fat and every plane of skin was either toned or, in Derek's and Laura's case, muscled all to hell and back. Actually it was as if Mount Olympus opened and dropped a family of gorgeous into the northern woods of California. Anyone would have been self conscious at the idea of going naked in front of them and Stiles with all of his issued just agreed to a nude hike to go skinny dipping.

He'd obviously lost his mind.

"I think our new friend is tired after his long car ride and might like to settle into his room today. You can take him tomorrow, Laura." Talia saved his still covered ass. Everyone in the room knew it, and Stiles was eternally grateful. So it shocked him to no end when his stupid ego filled and obviously curious mouth decided to betray the rest of his body's sense of self preservation and said, "Actually I think I wouldn't mind the swim. I'll go change my shoes and meet you at the Rose gate?"

"The Rowan gate is closer." Laura pointed to the west side of the mansion.

Stiles made mental note of his date with nudity.

\--- 

Towels were his friends, big long beach towels that were also a staple item of Point Luna. All friends and family had towels provided in communal and private rest areas so they could sit comfortably anywhere. Stiles currently had two towels. One tied expertly around his hips and another over his shoulders to help prevent bug bites. "Things love to bite me."

Laura nodded in agreement before leaning into Stiles person space and half whispering. "If things like to bite you Stiles, I'm assuming it's because you taste good." 

"Let the awkward blushing and crippling silence commence." Stiles said out loud. "You'll have to excuse me, I'm not usually flirted with, so I have no defense against it except for my sarcasm."

"But you're cute. Aren't you being cruel denying them a tiny nibble?" Laura reached back to pinch Stiles cheek rather roughly and ruffle his hair.

Stiles' flinched a little. "I'm also not used to all this touching by complete strangers. Your whole family seems to have zero personal boundaries when it comes to physical contact."

Laura winced as she kept walking deeper into the woods. "Sorry about that. We sometimes forget that some of our newer friends may not come from similar environments. I'm sure mom explained that no one has the right to make anyone feel uncomfortable here and if you don't want people touching you, we won't."

"No. I don't mind it. I'm just not used to it." Then quietly Stiles admitted. "Normally, only my friend Scott hugs me or touches me like that."

"Well you now have lots more friends and we can be rather affectionate." She turned around with a sparkle in her eyes. Stiles had that look most of his life, so he could spot a fellow trouble maker anywhere. Immediately his guard went up, but it was still too late. The naked woman pounced on him and grabbed him playfully around the neck placing him in a choke hold under her arm. "Let the welcoming noogies for friend Stiles commence!" Laura loudly announced to the forest.

Stiles felt her warm skin pressed to the side of his face, and his own hands touched her bare midriff in an effort to pull himself free. Human contact. Logically he knew it was something he needed to survive, but having only Scott for so long…The flood of emotions at something as simple as horsing around with someone new overwhelmed him. Tears pooled in the corners of his eyes as the first tickles of laughter left his voice. It was too much and maybe too soon, but Stiles knew in that moment it was what he needed. 

"Laura, let him go." A very new, yet familiarly angry voice said.

"Ohhhh, Derek. You gonna fight me for him?" She gasped, with one arm still firmly wrapped around Stiles. "Stiles, I do believe you have a knight out to save your honor."

Stiles didn't miss a beat. "I have honor to save? Cool. Can he save me pizza, curly fries and milkshake for dinner too?" 

"I could leave you here at the mercy of my sister if you like." Derek started walking away and Stiles realized that while being enrapture with that perfect bottom was nice, it would be better if he wasn't forced to look at it from a ninety degree angle.

"You are right, oh great and talented Prince Knight Derek. Rescue me from the clutches of your evil sister and I will run off to your magical kingdom as your servant!" Stiles did his best not to laugh. It had been so long since anyone had played with him like this. So very long.

"Hey! No one said anything about ad-libbing. I'm not evil. I'm misunderstood." Laura defended. She also shifted Stiles' weight so he was behind her more in her effort to potentially beat up Derek with her one free hand. Holy bouncing pogo sticks batman! Laura was crazy strong.

Stiles took this opportunity to start struggling again, but managed to forget he only wore two towels around his body. When the one wrapped around his shoulders fell, panic creeped into what was once a fun game. His struggling became real. "Let me go Laura," Stiles said. This time he meant it and she understood. She lifted both hands away from him and took a step back. Derek took a step forward and grabbed him before Stiles fell forward into a pile of leaves and dirt.

Someone else was touching his skin, his bad, diseased, wrong, infected, poisoned skin. "No," Stiles whispered. "Don't look at it. Don't touch it. Don't look at Me. Don't touch me." Flashes of all the other friends he almost made filled his mind. Kids and adults that acted like they were nice until they saw the excess layers of skin folded like thick scales over a heavily tiled surface. The Hales were no different. They would leave him if they looked. That brief moment of having friends would be over.

"Stiles," Derek said his name and some other stuff. Stiles hadn't heard the rest but he felt the towel slip back into place around his shoulders. It was being tied off like a cape.  "Stiles."

"Yeah," he finally answered.

"I'm going to take you to the main house for something to drink and to sit down. Is that okay?"

"We were going swimming." Stiles answered automatically. They didn't want Stiles to go swimming with them. He would ruin the water with his skin. Nobody wanted him to go swimming with them.

"We can still go swimming Stiles. Anytime you like." Laura touched his shoulder again and squeezed the same way Talia had earlier. Maybe she didn't see when the towel fell, maybe she didn't know how disfigured and disgusting he was. She was still touching him. Others stopped touching him when they saw.

Derek held his hands and forearms. He literally held Stiles up from behind and Stiles leaned into the slightly taller man letting his weight go for a second before mentally slapping himself. He was on an assignment and losing his shit in front of potential murderers. These were not friends. These were dangerous people with an armory of assault weapons. "Shit. I'm so sorry I lost it. You both must think I'm a total nut case."

His heart still raced in his chest, but he focused on the image of the dead woman. The full moon was tomorrow night. That didn't give him a lot of time.

"Derek's the nut case." Laura's teased. "You aren't ready to trust us with your body and that's ok. You might never be." Her presence channeled Talia's serenity. "No one here will ever tell you you have to share in the same ways we do. You're our friend Stiles. We mean that, and we respect that."

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Stiles has a mild panic attack in this chapter.  
> There are also issues of physical self loathing.
> 
> *If you want to see what inspires me, or just lots of NSFW fandom-ish smut. [Pervdia.tumblr.com](Pervdia.tumblr.com)*


	4. A Rude Beauty

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally!! A little bit of levity among all the drama!

"I understand you wish to fulfill your required meditation time with Derek?" Talia, with Laura as back up, cornered him the day after his mid-forest melt down.

"Hmm?" Stiles was confused. 'Meditation Time' was Point Luna's method of payment from the 'Friends' staying with them. Each was assigned a list of chores to do each week that suited their interests as well as fulfilled the maintenance and upkeep of the facility. 

"He said he would help Derek in exchange for me releasing him from my official Noogies." Laura preened as if that was a good thing.

Talia again rolled her eyes to heaven. Maybe she hoped for smiting. "In that case, Stiles is still free to choose his method of meditation." Exasperated she directed her attention back to Stiles. "Do you wish to work with Derek?"

"Sure, why not?" Stiles had no way of knowing what Derek did at Point Luna, but he knew the man had anger management issues. Why not start his investigation with tall, dark and broody?

"Well, my son isn't always the most sensitive towards others, but considering what Laura has told me, I don't see it as too much of a problem." Talia barely got her words out before a stomping, grumbly Derek marched up to the conversation. Specifically Laura. 

"What did you do?" He growled at her. Growled?

"Nothing." She batted her eyes as innocently as she could towards her brother, which meant that there was nothing innocent about it at all. Obviously Laura had foisted Stiles upon an unwilling Derek as some form of punishment. 

Stiles understood the role he played in their little sibling game, but it still hurt, especially after all the talk yesterday about being friends. It was okay though, Stiles wasn't their friend either. This was work and he already missed the first family dinner last night when he came back and passed out in his room.

Talia, who seemed the most reasonable, was now smiling strangely at her son and had obviously switched allegiances to camp Laura. "Well, no time like the present. Why don't you take Stiles to your room and let him borrow some of your work clothes. He'll need them to be your spotter."

Derek's eyes went wide like his mom slapped him at the mere suggestion. If Stiles didn't know any better Talia maybe did slap her son, because both of his cheeks were bright red, and from what Stiles could see, his other set of cheeks were red too.

_"Look Up. Look Up. I'm looking up."_

The other three naked people around him stared at him. 

"Crap. I said that out loud, didn't I?"

All three nodded at him in slow motion.

Derek broke the silence with more silence and simply walking away. Stiles, with the self control of demons, did not watch him leave. (First time for everything.) Talia didn't say anything either but smiled so wide at Stiles that he was afraid the woman lost her mind. She then pointed after her son like she was giving him the all clear to follow that ass, which he gladly did if for no other reason than to get out of Point Luna Awkward Situation #96 on what would be no doubt the longest list in the history of writing shit down.

"Oh, crap. I must be feeling better about all of this, if even my brain is rambling again." Stiles mumbled to himself. And he was talking to himself. All signs of comfort levels returning to normal, which was a good thing considering he needed to be comfortable to do a good job with this.

___ 

"What do you need me to do today?" Stiles said with as much bright eyed enthusiasm as he could muster. He wasn't an outdoors kind of guy. He didn't mind the occasional scenic run or parking somewhere private and pretty to get away from crowds, but the level of nature loving the Hales talked about leaped beyond him.

"Weevils." Was Derek's only response before throwing a pair of coveralls and a huge t-shirt at Stiles.

"Weevils?" Stiles mouthed wondering what in the hell Derek talked about. And why did Stiles need clothes when Derek didn't?

Turned out that Derek was a botanist, and he was responsible for all the trees, gardens, and the small farm that produced most of the staple foods for the residents. Also turned out that today's little 'let’s taunt the hell out of Stiles' libido' moment involved standing at the bottom of trees that Derek climbed to inspect and/or prune, gather whatever dropped, and place it into the mulcher. So yeah. Staring up at Derek's naked ass, cock and balls all day long. Stiles believed this day to be a personal attack on his sanity. "It could also be a torture session designed by some git-mo perv that has it out for me."

"What?" Derek asked from high in the tree. Stiles did his best to not look up at first, but found it easier to avoid getting hit in the head with branches if he paid attention to what got cut down.

"Find any weevils?" Stiles shouted up.

Derek rolled his eyes and his shoulders before going back to work. He didn't answer the question, but someone else did.

"This forest doesn't have weevils or very many other pests bothering the trees. Derek makes sure of it by caring for each one." An older gentleman wearing nothing but work gloves, hiking boots and a somehow matching big floppy hat pulled up next to Stiles. He caught one of the falling branches in midair. Funny how the branch almost seemed to be thrown at the man too. "It's his obsession." The man continued on, not really paying much attention to Derek in the tree and instead looking predatorily over Stiles. The strange man then went so far as to take an overt inhale of what must have been Sweaty Stiles Stink. "At least it was his obsession until very recently." 

"Nice hat. Mind if I take a step back." Stiles moved in retreat before the man could say yes or no. "There that's better. The creepy bad touch vibe coming from you gave me the willies and considering I can see your willy, you can understand why distance is the better option."

"What do you want, Peter?" Derek grumbled loud enough for Stiles to hear but barely.

Peter made a point of yelling up to Derek, cupping his hands to the sides of his face as if it was a game to communicate this way. "Talia made some lunch for you and Stiles. I, being the kind uncle I am, offered to deliver it."

Derek sighed visibly up in the tree. He might've even banged his head against the trunk and apologized to the tree for getting violent with it, but Stiles wasn't sure. Stiles had been busy noticing the huge picnic basket that sat propped on a log by a small clearing. He only had some fruit for breakfast and he skipped dinner the night before, so he was starving. 

A low howl echoed in the wind. Stiles almost didn't hear it, but Peter and Derek definitely did. Derek also definitely hit his head on the tree that time. Maybe these people _were_ house elves. 

"I guess that's my cue to head back. It was a pleasure meeting you Stiles." Peter reached out to pet Stiles' arm but before he could make contact Derek, who was high up in the tree not more than a second ago, stood between them.

Peter chuckled to himself before tipping his hat and, honest to god, sauntering away.

"What the hell is with that guy and should I be worried?"

"Peter respects friends and family enough to respect boundaries, but he enjoys pushing those boundaries."

Stiles nodded at the assessment. "In a sense I guess you all do. His way is just more overt.

Derek gaped at him, looking half offended.

"What? It's true." Stiles walked around Derek aiming for the basket. "You all respect the people here, but you all also push for friendship and comfort within your home. Nothing wrong with that. It's your home, but you do have to push people's boundaries to make that work."

Ohhh, the food smelled good. Was that chicken?

Five minutes later, he realized why Derek had smacked his head on the tree and Stiles wished he was in a position to do the same. Instead he sat comfortably on a red and white checked blanket in the middle of a romantic forest setting with the hottest man he would likely ever meet, who also happened to be naked. And they were enjoying one of the best home cooked meals in existence together. 

"I'm so sorry. I had no idea. If it would make you feel more comfortable, I can take my food back to the house and finish eating there." This was obviously some form of punishment for Derek. Any answers Stiles got today would be too clipped and short to be of any use, especially from a man who barely spoke at all. Why did his family do this to him?   

Derek frowned so hard it looked like it hurt him but he said. "Why would I want you to leave?" 

"You don't want me here?" Stiles was starting to get really confused, because why wouldn't Derek take the out? Was he trying to be nice?

"I don't do things I don't want to do."

"So you want a romantic picnic with me?" 

Derek didn't say anything but the blush from the earlier in the day returned tenfold and Stiles could see the red splotches rising up all over Derek's neck and chest too. God, that chest needed to be licked. It would taste so good with the fresh made butter in the basket. Stiles hummed to himself and maybe drooled a little before he realized the implications of the conversation that was being had.

"Wait. You want me?!" Stiles eyes went wide. No one wanted him. Not even Scott. Wait. Derek wanted him? "Like _want_ want?"

Derek snuffled not saying anything again but picked up a piece of chicken and started chewing it.

"But you’re…" Stiles waved at Derek's everything flailing his arms. "And I'm…" Stiles gestured to himself still in disbelief. "With the…"

Derek looked at him like he was an idiot.

Stiles only response. "Are you a house elf?" And it was at that moment that Stiles didn't want to meet Derek's eyes because they were too pretty and too expressive for words. This unfortunately meant he finally focused on something he had been avoiding looking at. And Holy Hell, Derek was half hard. Stiles heartbeat had already picked up, but now it thrummed in his ears making him feel dizzy. He licked his lips tasting the meal and forest on them, wondering how the flavor would combine with the taste of that uncut cock. 

Derek cleared his throat softly. "Can I kiss you?" 

At that, Stiles' eyes shot up to meet Derek's. Stiles went mute this time, because breathing hurt and who knew breathing was kind of required for talking? He'd definitely make a note of that later. 

Derek approached him slow and steady, leaning in on his hands, closer into Stiles space, close enough for lips to touch. Stiles closed his eyes and let it happen. Perfect lips from the most perfect man pushed ever so delicately against his own. The incremental pressure he returned reflected just how uncertain they both were in this. And didn't that confuse Stiles to no end. Why would Derek ever think Stiles wouldn't want to kiss him? 

The shy touch deepened with every second of contact. The longer each held out, the surer they became until finally the kiss was almost bruising in its strength. The parting of Stiles lips broke the building heat. One of them breathed again. The sharp inhale was the only thing Stiles heard before Derek's tongue encouraged him to open more, share more and taste more. And God he tasted of hope and dreams with unicorns riding on magic clouds of happiness. 

And that should have been Stiles first clue this wasn't going to end well because kisses so good that they conjure up fluffy poetic fantasy imagery didn't happen to Stiles. He got dirty drunken make out sessions at parties he'd crashed, or in the backs of dark lit bars. 

"Stop," Stiles pushed Derek away, cursing his brain for interfering. "I'm not available. I'm seeing someone."

Derek blinked at him confused for a second, still in Stiles' space, and then backed off closing everything down. "You don't have to lie. If you aren't interested in me, I'll leave you alone."

"Excuse me?" How the hell did he know Stiles lied? "Do you think I couldn't get a man to kiss me?" Stiles tried to defend. He had a pathetically small amount of pride to hold on to here.

"How should I know? You're the one freaking out about anyone seeing how beautiful you are." Derek said it so coldly that Stiles didn't know if it was a compliment or a taunt. Only his mom had ever called him beautiful, and his heart hurt to know that the word held such meaning in a situation like this.

"I'm not beautiful." Stiles clarified.

Derek stood up, "Forgive my rudeness. I was obviously mistaken."


	5. The Basement

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I promise the next chapter will contain fluff and all of this angst will start to get fixed! I swear. I promise. (I'm using this as a mantra right now.)
> 
> Also super thank you to [](http://archiveofourown.org/users/unrepentantdom>unrepentantdom</a>.%20My%20amazing%20beta!!)

The perfect opportunity for Stiles to actually do his job came up that night in the form of a barbecue. Point Luna held one during every full moon. "A mini-festival of appreciation to a good month that's past and for a good month to come," Talia explained. 

He also needed to work on his cover story if he wanted to keep up the premise of being in a relationship. That would also explain his absences better than the story about having doctor's appointments. Scott could make the perfect fake boyfriend in this situation. Already in law enforcement, Stiles wouldn't even feel guilty for getting him more deeply involved.

The young ATF agent made his way out of the Rose gate which faced the largest open acreage of the Hale property. Farm land faded in the twilight to the east, along with an expansive tree line beyond that. Most of the residents were around a fire pit stationed next to an enormous brick grill. 

Did these people have anything to cook with or on that couldn't feed all of the districts in Hunger Games?

"Stiles?" Scott said staring with wide eyes at his friend.

"Scott? What are you doing here?" _Quick. Think quick._ "You missed me that much?" Scott was still in his uniform. Maybe he was there for some emergency call. Technically, parts of Point Luna were within Beacon Hills’ city limits. This could totally work to Stiles' advantage if that's what was going on.

Scott did not seem as happy to see Stiles and visably blanched. Speedily moving towards the ATF agent, Scott grabbed him by the arm and started walking him back towards the house. Once on the other side of the gate, Scott put a hand over Stiles' mouth and said. "Wait here. I need to talk to Talia before you tell me anything or say anything. I'm invoking rule #11."

Stiles' eyes went wider than Scott's had earlier. Rule #11 meant no talking of any kind upon pain of death until the other released the condition. It was a helpful rule during the days of Stiles’ more out of control ADHD. Both of them needed to be able to shut the other one up for extended periods of time just to get points across. This also got Stiles mind racing in many varied directions. What _was_ Scott doing here? Was he investigating the disappearances too? Why did he need to speak to Talia first?

Less than 5 minutes later Scott came back with the matriarch in tow. Stiles normally would have been harassing Scott for answers in a flurry of questions, but to his frustration, Scott hadn't given the signal to speak yet. Instead Stiles was taken to the small wooden door leading off from the main kitchen. The basement. Oh Scott, old buddy, old pal. Stiles did what he could to hide his delight in skipping maybe weeks of sneaking around.

He tried to catalogue everything he saw. Stone stairs with hard stone walls, a warn oak railing that had been weathered with use of decades, maybe even a hundred years or more. Everything opened to a near warehouse sized single stone room. Old Leather bound books lined shelf after shelf of one wall. What looked like an operating table with a cart of strangely labeled dried plants and equipment sat patiently waiting for use against another wall, and the most disturbing thing of all was Anna and another young girl chained to the last wall by their throats, wrists and ankles. They were naked and seemed unconscious.

Stiles, as a trained professional, trusted his best friend. A friend that lead him to a sacrificial lair, so he was pretty sure he was going to make it out of this alive, but to be on the safe side, he slowly walked toward the gurney area. Several sharp things in that direction made good weapons.

"Can the others hear us down here?" Scott asked while staring at Stiles.

Talia shook her head, taking up a defensive stance between Stiles and the girls.

"Okay. I need to keep Rule #11 in place for a little bit longer and I'm going to need you to put that knife down Stiles. I promise I'll explain everything." He then looked back to Talia, "To both of you."

Stiles shook his head, keeping hold of the knife. Depending on what reasoning Scott gave he might drop his only weapon, but for now, how was Stiles to know Scott hadn't been brainwashed or drugged by the hippy crazy nuddie friend cult? Hell, maybe that was how they tricked people. Get unsuspecting loners in as 'friends'. Be good to them. Treat them so well, even Stiles had trouble believing any of them was bad. Yet here he was, trapped in a dangerous situation with the two people he had figured were the least involved.

"Okay, fine. Keep the knife, but stay where you are."

Stiles nodded. He could do that for a little while longer, but the moment someone tried to hurt him or anyone else in the room for that matter, all bets were off.

"About 3 months ago I was attacked when I went on a patrol in this area. It wasn't a normal attack. It was an animal of some kind and it bit me. I thought I might die from the blood loss since my body went into shock almost immediately, but the next morning I woke up here in Point Luna. The severe bite somehow faded to a scratch with a small bruise. Talia sat at my bedside. She explained what you're about to see and what happened to me." Scott shuffled from foot to foot blinking slowly. He did that when he was nervous. In a few seconds, he would swallow around air and blink faster finding his determination to continue, or he would run. 

Scott very rarely ran, so Stiles braced himself for whatever crazy was about to come out of his friend's mouth.

"The thing that bit me was in mourning for its lost mate and child. It was trying to heal here with Talia and her family, but they couldn't seem to help her. She turned feral and ran into me." Scott's eyes began to glow as if candlelight bled from them, soft ambers with gilded hues.

The weight of the surgical knife in Stiles' hand comforted him. Not because he wanted to use it on Scott, but because it was something real. He could feel the cold metal against his skin. Scott was as real as the knife.

"I wanted to tell you what had happened to me right then. You are my family, and you needed to know about my new pack, but this wasn't my secret to tell. Other lives could be in danger. So I asked Talia to investigate you, approve of who you are and judge for herself that you would be a good candidate to join their pack. They confirmed what I already knew. You are a great guy.  I had permission to bring you on board and reveal everything in any way I saw fit."

Scott cleared his throat with a low growl and a strange twitch. "This is where things get messy. I held off on inviting you here because of my own insecurities. Talia assumed when you e-mailed that it was my way of getting you familiar with them. Then you used a 'special friend' code and got an assignment that freaked you out. I should have put it all together sooner, but I had no idea anyone had reason to look into Point Hale, let alone the ATF or FBI. Which is what Stiles actually thinks he's doing here. He's been assigned to get information on everyone and report it."

Talia let loose her own low growl that was so far from calm matriarch, that Stiles thought it was maybe a different person. Her nails grew and her eyes bled red. "No one harms my family."

Scott moved between Talia and Stiles, holding up his hands, hands that shook and sprouted more hair by the second. "He was doing his job. He was told this place was filled with murders and another death was going to happen soon. He's a good man that was misinformed." Scott turned putting his back to Talia, facing Stiles. "Which brings me to the question I have for you, who told you these were bad people?" 

Scott threw up the Vulcan sign for peace releasing Stiles from his speech sabbatical, but Stiles didn't know who to trust or believe at the moment. He needed time to go over everything. He also knew he wasn't going to get out of this basement until everything was out in the open. Quickly he tried to piece together as much as possible. 

Scott turned into some kind of creature of the night, judging from the term 'pack' and all the hair, he assumed werewolf? Talia seemed to be the leader if Scott had to get approval from her. Why were the eyes different? Why did they have Anna and this other girl chained up and what was with the Dexter's lab behind him?

Talia spoke up to answer some of his questions that he'd obviously been saying out loud. "Young ones, and those without anchors must be restrained or they might hurt others on the full moon. I've given Anna and Beatrice a special sedative to calm them through the night since both girls have trouble focusing." She pointedly looked at Scott.

Stiles' friend nodded at the woman and then spoke to Stiles. "I don't have much time. I really wish I wasn't such a chicken shit about this before and maybe we could have avoided this situation, but it's important that you trust Talia. She will help you figure this out and…" Scott started panting, breathing harder. The words fought to get out.  "Trust her, Stiles. And Talia, please trust my friend. He will be the best friend this pack has ever known."

Talia nodded once to Scott before walking up to him and stabbing him in the neck with her claws. "Relax." Stiles didn't know if she was saying this to him or to Scott, but relaxing was extremely far from either of their mental states. "Your friend will be under our protection. You will be safe during the full moon." She then looked at Stiles with glowing red eyes. "Bring me the small jar with the lavender label."

Stiles turned around looking for the jar. When he turned back around, not even sure if he would hand over what he found, Scott wasn't so much Scott anymore. His face had contorted into something new, more fur grew in patches and sharp fangs nashed out at the air. If Talia didn't have such a strong grip on the back of his neck, Stiles would not feel ashamed if he wet himself. He still might, the night was young, werewolves were a thing and there were still the issues of a dead body, Scott's attack and the missing people to discuss with Talia.

Stiles tried to hand over the jar, Scott took a swipe at him, and only missed because of Talia's reflexes and Stiles being a jittery scared to death human. "How long will he be like this?"

"It varies with the strength of the moon and the will of the person. Scott's stressed because he's worried about you, so he's much more aggressive right now." She huffed out a small bit of frustration and threw Scott to the stone floor, pinning him there. "I need you to go get Derek, Laura, or my husband. I'll need help locking him up and I just promised not to get you hurt." 

"You want me to help you lock up my best friend in your creepy mutilation basement?" The scene somehow reminded Stiles of a toddler having a temper tantrum. Scott kept clawing at the stone floor and trying to buck Talia off of him. The growling roars of defiance even held the same feel of a little kid not getting his way.

"Would you rather I let him loose so he can hurt you or someone else?" She calmly said while forcing her knee into Scott's back. "Make your decision quickly."

"Shit." Stiles didn't know enough. 

Running up the stairs to look for help should have been quick. Laura was the obvious choice for the person to go to, and she was out by the bon fire last he checked. He'd only seen Talia's husband in passing and no reason in the world could have made Stiles want Derek to be part of his colossal supernatural reveal. This would also be the reason why fate pushed Derek down the east staircase and almost directly into Stiles, or maybe Stiles ran full force into him. Either way they collided in a spectacular explosion of Stiles' pain and hands in places they should never be without consent. 

The palm of Stiles' hand in fact went full frontal with Derek's exposed body and the force of the impact made the slightly smaller man lurch backward, landing him firmly on the tiled floor.

"Watch where you're going," Derek backhandedly said not even looking in Stiles' direction as he made to step over him.

"Talia needs your help in the basement." Stiles blurted out as an excuse for his behavior, and maybe because time was important, and if fate was being a cruel bitch already embarrassing him this much, why not go for broke?

Derek's normally multi-colored hazel eyes glowed brilliant blue right before he took off for the basement.

"No, no. Don't need any help getting up. Thank you for the offer." Stiles mumbled to himself as he hurried to follow. He didn't like Derek's reaction. Talia had made it seem like they did this sort of thing every full moon. Why would Derek run off in a near panic to go help her?

By the time Stiles joined them, Scott wasn't moving as much. His whole body seemed to be slowing down like a cheap wind up wolf toy. Derek held the lavender jar, hovering around his mother who was gently lifting Scott up with one arm.

"Take Stiles to your room." Talia spoke to her son. "I'll be there after I'm finished making sure these three are secured for the night. And Derek, I know I tried to force things, but matters have changed. Stiles is under our protection for the night, but he is no longer a friend."

Derek looked more hurt at those words than Stiles felt. Both facts shocked Stiles. Not even two days having the Hales as 'friends' and he felt horrified at the potential loss. Was he really so pathetic that his only relationships had to be with monsters that probably killed people? And why was Derek looking like his whole world shattered?  

Talia pet Derek on the shoulder in that way that she had for Stiles. The way he knew he would never feel again. "I'll explain when I come up." 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For totally NSFW(meaning porn) randomness that inspires me. [Pervdia.tumblr.com](pervdia.tumblr.com)


	6. Derek Hates Pants

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Special shout out to my beta [unrepentantdom](http://archiveofourown.org/users/unrepentantdom) who manages to fix my nonsense!!!

Derek didn't say a word the entire way up to his room. Nothing new in that, but considering the circumstances Stiles had plenty to say and needed someone to talk to, unfortunately the one person he trusted was drugged out of his mind on mysterious hoo-doo lavender jar stuff. "What did you give Scott?"

Derek glared at Stiles, like he caused the Great Depression, World War 2 and the creation of Jar Jar

"What! Are you blaming me for your bad mood?" Stiles' frustration rose exponentially. "I'm the good guy here. I'm the one who should be mad at you and blaming you for things."

Derek glared some more, this time rolling his neck as if to say Stiles irritated him.

"Stop talking to me with your eyes and use your damn mouth! I will not …"

Derek leaned in and kissed him. Effective, but totally confusing. What the ever loving hell? Stiles pushed him back, which was to say Derek moved back when Stiles pushed.

"I meant speak, Fido!"

"I'm not a dog." Derek growled. "And I did that because after my mother comes up here in less than a minute, with Laura, because you kept on shouting at me, it will most likely be the last time I get to kiss you."

"Why do you want to kiss me?" And, really? Stiles was going with that for a line of questioning? Where the hell were his priorities? "Are you here to distract me from saving Scott?"

Derek busied himself rummaging through a drawer. He pulled out a shirt, ignoring Stiles. Then he slipped it on over all that glorious flexing muscle, and Stiles wondered if the werewolf thing made them all pretty.

Talia and Laura thankfully arrived seconds later.

"Derek." Laura warned. "I don't know what's going on right now, but do you really think foreplay is appropriate?"

Derek rolled his eyes at her before ripping off the shirt and throwing it back in the drawer. He sat quietly on his bed after that like a petulant child waiting for his next punishment.

Jesus, what was with these Hale women that made grown men into kids by just looking at them? Did they do that to Stiles? 

Self consciously Stiles squared his shoulders and prepared for his first volley of questions. "So Werewolves are thing, and you're all a pack. And you lock people up in your basement when they can't control it." Stiles rattled off the 'facts' he'd been told so far. "There have been five disappearances from this property in the last four years. Three of which happened in the last three months and one of whom is dead."

Derek put his head in his hands, his voice so low and disbelieving that Stiles barely heard it. "He's here for work?"

"He's here for work?" Laura echoed the sentiment, but with less heart break. And why the hell was Derek heartbroken? They kissed two times and the man looked like he was going to jump out the window and run to the nearest Ben and Jerry's stock pile.

"He's here for work." Talia confirmed. "Scott never told him and all of the emails apparently were false in nature? They were lies you told in an effort to gain entrance to our home."

"Woah," Stiles waved his hands shaking off the accusation physically as well as verbally. "I never sent you any emails. That was my superiors. I just found out about this assignment less than a week ago." 

"So who the hell has been emailing me?" Laura not only looked angry, she looked murderous with her eyes flashing golden flames.

"I don't know who was emailing you directly. I only know my superior in this investigation, and since I don't know more about what the hell it is you all do here. I'm not willing to tell you any more until I get some answers of my own."

Talia nodded. "As always, it comes down to trust. I don't trust you, and you don't trust me." She looked at her son and then back to Stiles with more sadness in her eyes. "Scott is our common thread and in honor of his request, I will keep you here and safe until morning." 

Stiles scoffed, "In other words, you're not going to answer a damn thing." 

Derek and Laura both growled. Stiles wasn't sure if it was at each other or at him. 

Talia raised a well manicured brow and both of her children backed off immediately. "I only owe answers to pack and since the majority of them can hear this conversation, I have much to answer for before the morning." 

"As for you," she smiled with such pain in her eyes at Derek. "You will stay with him tonight. You will only tell him about your role in his arrival and you will end this."

Derek didn't look at Talia, but acknowledged the order with a nod of his head.

Talia and Laura left. Stiles hoped to go inform a pack of werewolves that Stiles was not on the main menu for ritual sacrifice, or at the very least to wait until morning before eating him. The 'huge' oven in the kitchen just got a lot scarier.

"You guys don't eat people, do you?" Stiles asked while noting the door was locked.

"No, but we sometimes eat scrawny ATF agents." Derek surprisingly answered.

"That was a joke right? Right? Because I'm too young to die," Stiles spoke a little faster than normal. "Also could you put clothes on? Since I'm going to have to talk to you ‘til morning, I'd rather not have to avoid looking places while we discuss things."

"Figures." Derek huffed while getting up from the bed and walking over to the small set of drawers.

"What figures?"

"I just got yelled at for trying to seduce you with clothes, and the first thing you want is me back in them." Derek pulled out the same shirt as before and Stiles watched it slide back over the expanse of Derek's body in well fitted dirty, dirty lust. Okay, yeah. Clothes had become a turn on.

When the hell did that happen?

Derek answered his question. "Clothing draws the eyes to places. Growing up without them or even briefly living without them in your everyday life, physical forms becomes nothing to attract or detract from a person. It's just skin. What's the point with being hung up about what it looks like. It's the clothing that messes with people's perceptions. They create illusions and give people ideas of taking them off and wanting to touch under them." 

Stiles understood the concept. "Without clothes, the mystery and challenge is gone. There's nothing to hold the eye to one location over another but that doesn't take into account people that look like you." 

Derek went back to glaring.

Stiles pointed at the shirt that barely covered Derek's lickably round ass. "So you really were trying out some foreplay by putting on a shirt?"

Still glaring.

"Is that face a werewolf thing in general, or do only the Hales do that?"

 _Glaring_.

"Fine. Lets address Babar's cousin doing the mambo in the room. What the hell kind of love-spell are you under to have feelings for me? Because seriously, I have only known you for two days and you've kissed me twice and I'm pretty sure you saw all of…well you know why most people don't look at me the way you do, or call me beautiful, or kiss me without the room being too dark for them to see."

Derek searched the floor of his room for words, and didn't look like he was going to find any.

"Come on." Stiles pleaded "Even your mom, who currently hates me, wants you to tell me at least this much."

"The process to get in here isn't only via emails with my sister. Someone, usually a direct family member, goes out and watches over a potential 'friend' for a period of three or four weeks." Derek said sitting back down on his bed. And was he going to put on pants or what? 

"You stalked me and fell in love with me?"

Derek rolled his eyes because apparently Stiles was an idiot for asking, but the werewolf didn't deny it either.

An hour later Stiles was bored out of his mind and getting nowhere with question and answer time with Derek, so he started talking about random things.

"Did you know Monday's cause heart attacks? Garfield wasn't just making it up. That cat had reasons to fear the day. Reasons, Derek!"

"...But Why is it illegal to bowl on the sidewalk? Was there some horrible ten pin accident that forced this to become a law?"

"...Turtles don't really breathe out of their butts. Well very few of them do, but they're not really breathing so much as passing the gas they held while holding their breath. This creates of course a whole new level of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle fart jokes that Scott and I could not help but indulge in during our formative years."

That got a response of a raised eyebrow from the werewolf now lying next to him on the bed. 

"Ok so we might have told a few last week, but I swear it's not as bad as when we were twelve."

Stiles paused in his skipping thoughts of reptiles and youth. "I used to think I was half snake and that as soon as I shed my outer layer, I would have flawless soft new skin everywhere."

Stiles didn't want to talk any more. He was kind of talked out after 3 hours. Maybe he could sleep now. Or ignore what he just said.

"You smiled at the people that stared at you," Derek's voice was whisper quiet. "You cried at night, but smiled at the people that stared."

"I have no idea what you're talking about. I haven't cried since my father died." At least, not until he came to Point Luna.

"I could hear you at night Stiles. You cry in your sleep."

"I do not, Mr. Cullen. And is that why you think you love me? Pity over the crying, lonely man?" Stiles understood pity.

"Beauty, perseverance and kindness." Derek sleepily said.

"Why do you keep saying I'm beautiful?" Stiles finally turned in the bed to face Derek. He wanted to see the reaction to the question completely.

The fluffy expressive eyebrows vanished, fangs came down, full almost furry sideburns covered Derek's once lightly stubbled and oh so perfectly chiseled jaw. The bridge of his nose crinkled and thickened up through to his hair line. "Am I beautiful?"

Stiles thought about it. The definitions of beauty usually involved symmetric ideals and familiarity. The face still held perfect symmetry so that wouldn't be an issue. Could he get familiar with this face enough to call it beautiful? "I'm not sure. I need to stare at you longer." Stiles raised a finger to poke at the hard ridge line of skin.

"I stared at you for 4 weeks." Derek grunted in understanding. "You are beautiful."

"Comments like that aren't going to help you end this faster."

"I suppose not." Derek smiled behind really sharp scary teeth and Stiles must have been slightly crazy because it was somehow cute, well in a vicious supernatural monster kind of way. 

Derek's toothy smile grew bigger. "You really have no idea when you speak out loud do you?"

"Did I just call you cute while all wolfed out?" Stiles blushed, but avoided house elfishly smacking himself in the head.

Derek, of course, nodded in that exclusively Hale fashion.

Stiles sighed desiding the ceiling would be a safe place to look for the rest of the night. "I need to trust you and your family. I need to believe in them. Do you think I can?"

"Yes."

 


	7. One Week

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My beta is awesome! [Unrepentantdom](http://archiveofourown.org/users/unrepentantdom)

At the ass crack of dawn, Cora, Anna and Scott brought up breakfast along with a camera. This would have been a pleasant surprise if not for the wrongness of the being awake that early, and the fact that Stiles, still clothed, was currently wrapped around a half naked Derek when the three opened the door and started taking pictures.

Of course Derek's only response was to growl a little and pull Stiles closer before falling back asleep which was really no help at all.

"Hey!" Stiles admonished. "No cameras. It's a rule."

Cora scoffed, totally unimpressed with Stiles. "Those rules are for 'friends'. Right now, you aren't." 

Stiles pointed at Scott. "He's my friend."

"Yes and he's helping us do this so that says something, doesn't it?" Anna held the camera out for a couple more shots, looking more and more pleased by the second. 

"What exactly are you doing?" Because now, Stiles was curious as well as hungry.

For a place that had so much food, he had serious problems with skipping meals.

Scott smirked with his devilish 'I'm getting into trouble' face. "We have a plan."

At this, Derek finally perked up enough to give a damn that his sisters had invaded his room to document cuddling. The broody bastard still didn't say anything, but at least Stiles knew he was awake.

Stiles held up a hand. "Give me coffee and food, before you start in with more crazy stuff." 

So while fresh bread, eggs, milk and smoked venison got devoured, Scott laid out his plan to return Stiles' 'friend' status which was now openly being referred to as 'pack' status. It involved showing that not only Scott trusted Stiles, but that a direct member of Hale family, Derek, had claimed Stiles as a mate and therefore was an instant friend of the family.

"Oh. My. God." Anna squeaked at Cora, who had a shit eating grin on.

"What?" Stiles asked the two girls in the room.

Nearly out of breath and flailing, Anna pointed her camera at the two men entangled on the bed, "Do it again. Do it again. So I can take pictures."

This time Stiles squeaked. "What?" He had heard of kinky stuff before, but he was not okay with repeating whatever they assumed he and Derek did last night for a camera. "We didn't do anything."

"No, you idiot," Derek swallowed around the bit of breakfast he'd been given. "She wants you to feed me again."

Stiles blinked a few times. With only one big platter of food, it seemed rude not to share it with Derek, who also didn't get to eat dinner last night. Stiles wasn't really thinking about his actions when he held out a piece of meat and bread for the werewolf. "What? Is feeding a big thing?"

"How you eat and who you eat with is very important to us. That my brother trusts you to feed him is a very big deal." Cora folded her arms, a mix of threat and pride came with each word, like maybe she wanted to beat Stiles up a little before letting Derek get too comfy.

Unfortunately as this conversation carried on, Stiles could tell Derek tensed. "Stop it," Derek finally said. "He's not my mate."

"Not yet." Anna squealed while her overexagerated eyebrows got nearly tossed into the air. 

Derek remained quiet enough that Stiles could read between the lines as well as the entire script. Derek may like him as an oddity that he could objectively muse over, but something more wasn't in his future plans.

"Crap. Now you're making Stiles upset," Anna reached out and smacked her brother's shoulder. "Stop being and idiot, you dofus!"

Derek growled at her.

Cora growled at Derek.

Scott growled at the entire room. "Enough. Derek, do you want Stiles to stay or not?"

Derek didn't answer.

Cora answered for him. "He wants it, but he's scared."

Derek huffed petulance.

Anna innocently, or maybe not so innocently asked, "Is this about Paige?"

Paige Simpson was one of the first people to disappear from Point Luna.

Before Cora could say anything, Derek leapt out of the bed, nearly knocking over the platter of food and definitely smacking Stiles in the face with his passing junk. 

While Stiles sputtered at the sudden movement, Derek moved to cover Cora's mouth. 'Trust them' Derek said but, "You won't tell me about the first person to go missing from here?"

Cora pushed off her brother with a flash of golden eyes, "Paige was Derek's girlfriend in college. She didn't take well to the idea of what we were and left Point Luna." 

"And you want me to believe you let a school hook up in on what's possibly the biggest secret this family has, and then let her walk away, no harm, no foul? Nope." Stiles said around several mouthfuls of eggs. "Not buying that." 

"This is why I didn't want to tell you about her," Derek pleaded. "How could you believe us, when you barely trust us?" 

"So far everyone here implied that they didn't know anyone was missing or anything had gone wrong enough to involve the ATF or FBI." Stiles pointed a hunk of bread at Derek. "So why would a question about Paige set off alarms? Unless you knew she was missing." 

Derek heaved a heavy sigh. "I put it together last night." He then sat back on the bed, careful not to look at Stiles. "After she left, I couldn't let it stand the way it was. I wanted to find her again and try to convince her to stay, but she was gone. No one had heard from her in weeks. I assumed it was because she didn't want to be found by 'monsters', but then you said there was a case-file with missing people."

That didn't make Derek look any less guilty of hurting her. In fact, if Stiles was still objective, Derek would be his number one suspect. It also didn't answer why Derek didn't want to mate with Stiles. "Do you still love her?"

"I promised myself after that, that the person I loved, if I ever loved again, would love all of me." Derek laid it all out there. "I'm not mating with you Stiles, because you don't love me."

"But I could. It's not like the idea of it is off the table. It's just not the thing I was sent here to do. There's a dead body and missing people to answer for. And I mean, if I got to know you outside of being locked in a room with you while your werewolf pack decided my fate, who knows. You know?"

Anna had the camera up like this was one of those moments that she was going to play back at their wedding or something.

Stiles rolled his eyes at her, fully feeling Talia's pain at dealing with this family. 

"You won't be part of that investigation unless Talia and the rest of the pack trusts you." Scott reminded.

Stiles nodded in agreement. "Scott's plan won't work because both of us aren't ready to make any kind of relationship believable, but that's alright I have a plan of my own." Stiles held out another small hunk of meat to Derek. "You weren't the only person putting pieces together last night."

\---

"Are you sure about this?" Derek looked more anxious than Stiles felt and at the moment Stiles was fairly certain breakfast was about to make a return appearance.

"Yes, now get your incredible ass out of my room so I can have a heart to heart with your pack leader without a boner."  

"Alpha, technically the title is Alpha." Derek corrected. He was the last to leave. Scott having easily seen the merits of Stiles plan ran off to find Talia. Cora said a venue change might help things since Derek's room might seem like a threat, considering it smelled heavily of Stiles and her son.

"Your ass is called the Alpha?" Stiles joked. 

Derek pinched the bridge of his nose walking out of the room and showing off his 'Alpha'.

"What?!" Stiles called after him. "I could totally see that name for such a fine piece of …"

The real Alpha and mother to the man Stiles currently objectified, walked in before he could complete his sentence. Talia's amusement level didn't seem very high and Stiles cursed at himself for once again suffering the worse timing in history and then winced, because every level of inappropriate just came out of his mouth and in front of a woman that he was going to have to, at the very least, get the respect of in the next 5 minutes.

"S-so…awkward moment aside, I have a proposition for you." He tried to smile in the face of a woman that could eat him.

Talia held her stately composure, "Calm yourself, Mr. Stilinski. It was decided last night that no harm would come to you and you would be free to go. Your ogling of my son won't change that."

Stiles let out a sigh of relief, but felt the bitter swell of being forced out of something he barely had a chance to connect with; something that already included his best friend and the only living person to call him beautiful. "See, that's the thing. I don't want to go. I want to stay and help you find out what's going on. I assume you're already launching your own investigations since federal officials have been involved. And no matter what you may think of me, you have my loyalties so long as Scott is safe and protected."

"Scott?" She folded her arms in front of her. The defensive posture made Stiles acutely aware of lost ground he hoped he would be gaining by now.

"Yeah, Scott. I trust him, and I have to protect him, because he's all I have left. The furry additions to his features didn't change that."

"Your relationship with Scott was the deciding factor in letting you go. If you tell our secret, you would be telling on your friend as well, but that doesn't mean that I trust you to stay with us, or help us."

"Here's the thing. I don't want to go. You know my history from Derek's stalking me right?"

"Derek never said anything about you, except that you were safe to bring into the pack. His reports are usually brief, but yours was the shortest by far. Which is why Laura's emails were consulted."

"I read all of those emails before I came, and while the text was a little dry, they still said the basic truth. I'm alone, scared, and in need of a family. All of my problems stem from lack of self esteem and my skin could do with some serious sun exposure. What they didn't say, is I have huge trust issues with my body. I know you picked up on that, but I was almost twenty when I lost my v-card and even then I kept the lights off and my shirt on. I don't show _Scott_ my body. I don't want anyone looking at the diseased freak I am, and then leaving. The thing is. I'm willing to show how much I trust you by..."

Stiles reached down to pull the shirt Derek had given him to sleep in over his head, but Talia's hand stopped him. 

"No. I appreciate the sentiment, but never do anything like that to prove a point." She walked away from him and towards the bed in the room. She sat on the edge, thinking something through.

Stiles bit his lip to force himself not to say anything more. Talia had that parental 'I'm deciding your fate' look. Stiles remembered it often crossing his father's face where he was concerned. Usually, Stiles pleaded his case during those moments, and usually Stiles put his foot in his mouth losing whatever battle he wanted to win.

"You may stay and we will give you all the information we have to help in your investigation, but you will follow through with your offer to join us without clothes at the end of one week's time."

"Wait, whoa. The offer was to you. Not the whole pack. And what happened to not doing anything to prove a point, and the freedom to gain trust… _Oh_." Alpha, Solomon, Tyrion, they all seemed like pretty good names for Talia at the moment. "You want this to…Shit. Okay." Even Stiles had to admit the solution was elegant in its simplicity. Stiles had to make peace with himself and with this pack enough to be comfortable to go around naked. Meaning he had to trust not only Talia but everything she protected. It would also validate all of the lies told via email and repair the damage Stiles caused within the pack at having essentially a spy on the inside. "I’ll have to work to build every relationship until I'm essentially pack."

She nodded without saying a word. The movement reminded him of Derek.

Panic.

"Does Derek have to be there?"

She got up to leave the room with a smile, and continued to saying nothing.

"No, really. Can Derek not be there for this?" Stiles called after her. 


	8. Investigation

Stiles made to follow after Talia. He had serious issues with his new quest for nudity, and negotiation was one of his better skills. A week obviously asked too much of his psyche. 

"I'll be assisting you in your investigation." Laura blocked him at the door, forcing Stiles to whimper and make grabby hands in Talia's ever distancing direction. 

"Look, I realize you're having a hard time of this, and if most of my family wasn't already predisposed to like you, I'm sure our Alpha would have forced you out by now, consequences be damned, but she's giving you a chance to be pack, to trust us and let us trust you. Don't screw that up by trying to change her decisions."

"What if I end up finding out that none of the pack's involved? What if we catch the bad guy? I'll have no reasons to doubt anyone and I'll I have every reason to keep your secrets. What happens if I don't do what she asks at the end of week?"

"That's a lot of 'ifs', Stiles." 

"But what happens if I don't get naked?"

"I'm not the Alpha. I can't say with certainty what her decision will be, but I can tell you what I would do and what she has done in the past." Laura started walking away from Stiles in the opposite direction her mother took.

Stiles gesticulated behind the now very silent naked woman. "Okay, suspense isn't really high on my approved kink list. What the hell happens?"

"You have a kink list?" Laura turned raising a well manicured brow. "Does Derek know?"

"Oh my God, focus. I swear everyone in this place has more issues with keeping on one task than I do and trust me that's messed up."

Laura waved him off, continuing her walk down the west wing staircase. "We multitask, Stiles. Like right now we're heading to our resident experts on the occult so maybe we can narrow down the ritual being performed. Does it matter that I also want to know more about my baby brother's attachment to you on the way?"

Occult experts? Derek's attachment? The 'occult' was a really broad-as-hell term, and how 'attached' was she talking? Umbilical cord levels or sharing favorite head phones level? And how 'expert' was she talking? PhD or a scryer of comic book collections? Stiles steepled his fingers together, tapping them ala evil mastermind as he walked. "Your deflection skills almost rival my own. What happens if I don't take off my clothes?"

Laura smirked a little before becoming much more serious. "Unless the person is accepted as pack, no one leaves Point Luna with complete memories of this place or its inhabitants."

"What?" Stiles stopped following her. An edge of panic creeped across his skin. "Do you flashy thing people? Are you really all MIB aliens, but don't wear black because clothes go against your race or something? Ah-ha. Thank heaven. This makes so much more sense than ridiculously hot werewolves running naked in the forests of California. Do you have rubbery fake skin suits on? Was Scott always an alien? Are you just taking him back into the collective?" Stiles nodded to himself, going over all of the details. "This would explain many things." He half hoped the sarcastic alien theory was right. He really wanted to disassociate this whole situation as much from reality as possible. If somehow this entire thing got just a little further into the land of the unbelievable Stiles brain could accept that he was nuts and move on.

The look of utter 'WTF' coming from Laura squashed his Will Smith dreams, but Stiles defended his postulate for sanity. "Tell me aliens are crazier than a family of hippie naked werewolves." 

Laura stuck out her tongue, smiling as she resumed walking. "Only Mom and Dad are technically hippies."

-

"Go knock on his door." Laura pointed up a short path to a small cottage that had to have been ripped from the pages of Grimm's Fairytales. The light gray paint job wasn't the problem, nor was the shadows cast by the surrounding forest. The culprits in setting up the 'Abandon all hope' vibe were the vine like plants and flowers that grew around the place in odd people shapes or almost backward directions.

"Is this the witch that eats children?" Stiles needed to know if he faced certain doom for the 5th time in less than 24 hours. It was important to him.

"No. They should be friends of yours. Eating you would be in bad form." Laura folded her arms across her bare chest. 

"Must you all look like you could beat me with my own arms and legs? Also, I caught how you didn't deny that they might still eat me. Especially considering Scott is the only friend I know of."

"Go knock on the door. They should be home considering how early it still is."

"Why don't you do it?" Stiles stood his ground. "Isn't this your property? Aren't they your friends too?"

"It was the full moon last night. They put up multiple barriers on the full moon."

"Oh, so someone doesn't trust you, but still stays here? Good to know." Stiles swished his hips in smart ass defiance not waiting for a reply to that statement before walking up to the door and knocking. These were definitely people Stiles needed to meet.

 _Run Away. Run Away. Don't Look. Run Away._ His brain began shouting at him as soon as the door opened to reveal none other than his high school guidance counselor. He told this woman _things_. He shared stuff about his life during one of the most hellish periods of his social development and now she stood before him without any clothes. This wasn't a stranger he could put into a safe foreign space in his head and block out. This was the person he told about not wanting to join a sports team, but really wanting to join Lacrosse with Scott. This was the person that he told about never wanting to grow his hair out, but how he secretly wanted something other than a buzz cut. This was so…

"Stiles. Breathe for me. You remember our exercises." Ms. Morrell spoke slowly, softly. "Focus on that dot in time and how that dot expands and contracts, growing exponentially till everything opens up for you and you can see the world differently."

Stiles closed his eyes and did as instructed. It was easy to fall back into that voice. How many times had Ms. Morrell talked him down from some emotional turmoil? This was still that same woman, only now she wore much less. "A show of trust."

"Among other things." She responded. "Ah, I see we've left Laura out. Be right back." She moved past Stiles in the door way and flicked her wrist breaking some black dust on the ground. She then moved an innocuous branch of small wild flowers out of the path.

"I think my brother was expecting you last night after the meeting." She told Laura, who was now comfortably walking up to the small house.

"We had to wait for the Alpha's ruling on Stiles." Laura responded.

A quiet unassuming voice entered the conversation. "That didn't stop you from investigating on your own last night though." The calming tone reminded Stiles immediately of Ms. Morrell even though it was decidedly masculine.

"Correct as always." Laura smiled.

"And what did you find?" The man, Stiles recognized as Scott's old vet clinic boss, Dr. Deaton asked.

"A protection circle around an altar near the border. No scent trail either."

"No scent trail of any outsider to the pack." Deaton corrected.

"What are you implying?" Laura snipped with her gold eyes flashing.

Ms. Morrell stepped in. "He's stating the obvious. If you didn't smell an outsider, you must have been able to smell pack. Now describe the altar."

Laura growled out something about mountain ash, juniper berries, and dead candles that Stiles didn't understand, but he would ask about in detail later.

Then they asked Stiles to tell them about the condition of the body in the photo he saw, which he shared his information on.

"Tara. Whoever did this killed Tara." Laura seemed beyond pissed off now. 

"It would seem you have someone trying to cast a 'life eternal' spell." Ms. Morrell said.

Her brother continued speaking like they had one mind in the matter. "The spell isn't just for physical immortality though. It's a power spell, designed to draw from the power of the dead, and return strength to a lineage. The positioning of the altar means there are at least 4 others that will need to be destroyed. You will need one more with you besides Stiles."

Ms. Morrell completed the thoughts of her brother while the man walked back into their cottage. "Only three can desecrate the areas affected, and never the same three. One variation must be present at all of them and one constant. Considering the situation, Stiles would be a good choice as the constant. Also as soon as the first site is destroyed the person who built it will know."

"Hmm?" Stiles had been listening and absorbing as much information as he could, but… "say what now about the what?"

"They will try to stop you, which means Stiles will be a target, along with whomever else he's with." Deaton said holding out a small necklace to Stiles. "Wear this so the wolves of your pack can track you and those you don't consider pack cannot." 

"Look for naturally raised platforms of rock or oak." Ms. Morrell suggested. "You should also start hunting down each location first. Then develop a plan to wipe them all out in the shortest time possible."

"Wait. Back up. Pack? I don't have a pack yet, that's kind of the problem with me. How will this thing work?" Stiles plucked at the brown talisman necklace he already wore. Investigating everyone kind of made a magic device like this one useless.

Laura hooked a thumb behind her. "It's already working." 

Stiles turned around a little faster than necessary to see Scott rushing towards them through the tree lawn and Derek glaring daggers at his sister.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I promise more Sterek time in the next chapter, complete with cuddles.


	9. Skinny Dipping

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank You my Beta!!! [Unrepentantdom](http://archiveofourown.org/users/unrepentantdom/pseuds/unrepentantdom)

"Although technically Derek has been following us since we left the house." The easy comfort that had been in Laura's tone when Stiles first arrived slipped into a cooler snark. "What the hell did you do to him?" 

Unsurprisingly, Stiles felt more at home with her like this. The distance gave him known boundaries to work with. "I showed him my Strawberry Shortcake collection. He seemed to like Sour Grapes best, but being a botanist werewolf, he couldn't abide by the strange smells."

Stiles heard Derek growling. The werewolf wasn't even that close yet. "I think we should start looking for the altars now." Stiles tried to change the subject. Whatever he and Derek had going for them, they currently had much more against them until this whole ritual sacrifice thing got resolved.

Scott came up to join the conversation. "What altars?"

Five severely long minutes later... 

"Absolutely not! It's too dangerous." Scott's eyes flashed gold. "I'll be the constant at each location." 

"The reason why I'm going is twofold." Stiles explained while Laura appeared to be corralling her brother. "First, I can assess the situations compared to the crime scene that only I, amongeveryone here, have complete information on. Second, I need you to go back to report in for me today, and while you're there, find out what you can about my contact. I was sent into too many things blind, and I need to know more about what I'm dealing with and what they actually know. Use puppy tactic #17 on her."

Scott flinched. "Not saying that I agree with this plan at all, but I need to go that far?"

"Yeah, she's good." Stiles admitted. Agent Argent was a piece of well put together work, but Scott had the dopy innocent puppy look down to a science. If he wanted to, Scott could have used his skills for world domination. Who knew? Maybe now that true canine stuffs enhanced his puppy factors, Scott planned to take over the world one sweetly sad face at a time.

Stiles shuddered at the thought before he looked back over at the cottage. He expected to see Morrell and Deaton, but they were gone and the cottage door had been covered in overgrown well aged vines. Some of them looked to have collected that dusting of moss and forest that comes from the earth  settling the air around things. 

"What the hell?" Stiles pointed at the obvious magic. "Can't this place give me three minutes to adjust to new deadly information before Jossing my plot line?" 

When Laura's eyes followed what Stiles was looking at, she swore under her breath and then ran back towards the main house at a speed Stiles never saw anything on two legs go.

"Explanations? Because a werewolf just ran in fear to her momma. I'm kinda thinking we should be running too." Stiles stared all around him waiting for some other supernatural wackiness to destroy his good time, because "Superficially this was supposed to be a relaxing vacation for me to  work on my skin while only 'information gathering'."

"The Emissaries have gone to ground." Derek explained. "It's…not good."

"I'm staying." Scott said, and at the same time Stiles asked, "What the hell is an Emissary?"

Derek argued at Scott, ignoring Stiles. "You should go. If the Emissaries have left, we need more information."

"I'm not leaving without him." Scott growled stepping between Derek and Stiles.

"What are you going to do?" Derek barked. "You can barely control yourself and we have no idea what the threat is."

Stiles edged between them. "Two grown men growling and barking over my safety is just weird, so doggie posturing aside," he directed his focus to Scott. "I have this necklace and after you're done getting as much information as you can, you can come find me."

Scott didn't like it, so Scott didn't budge until Stiles reiterated that he was the only one who could meet with Stiles' contact without raising suspicions. Scott had been mentioned in the mission briefing as a possible alternative if Stiles was unable to easily leave. It was supposed to happen in like a less than 5% kind of way, like a back up to the back up, and at the time Stiles liked the idea of getting to maybe work with Scott a little on his weekends, but this was a total clusterfuck if ever fucks got clustered.

"Derek, please go stand someplace else while I talk to Scott." The naked glaring werewolf did nothing but intimidate, and right now Stiles needed Scott to listen which wasn't going to happen with Broody McMuscles nearby.

Derek complied but not really since he was still within Stiles' boulder tossing range. 

Stiles rolled his eyes. He didn't have time for this. "Use my cell, and call number 8 on the speed dial."

"I'm not leaving you Stiles." Scott pouted flashing his eyes of puppy justice.

"Stop that! Don't use your powers for evil, man. And it is evil to use that stuff on me when I'm trying to save lives here. You know I'm right about what needs to be done and I get that you're worried about me, but I don't think Derek would hurt me."

Scott grunted looking over at Derek

Stiles physically turned Scott's face and focus back towards him. "You were 'pack' not less than 10 minutes ago, and this morning you tried to convince me to werewolf-marry him. None of that's changed for you, has it? So the man you personally picked to be my hubby will be at my side until you return. I don't think you could ask for a better guardian than that right?" 

Scott pouted one last time for good measure at Stiles. 

"You have puppy eyes, I have manipulative reasoning. It always balances out, buddy." Stiles smirked back at him knowing he won this round.

"Fine," Scott began muttering under his breath as he walked away.

-

"Where are you taking me?" Stiles thought originally they would be waiting for another member of the family to go with them on their little quest to find the Altars, but Derek started moving almost immediately after Scott left.

"Howl's Hollow" Derek answered.

Stiles recalled the name from when he was going to skinny dip with Laura. "I don't think a swim will clear up the situation, and although exercise has been proven to improve cognitive skills, I don't think watching your glistening body drip with water will help me think of anything helpful for this case or our safety."

Derek didn't respond and kept moving toward his goal. The inclines of the path lead them past the area of the small noogie fight he had with Laura. Stiles briefly mourned the loss of that moment and wondered if he would ever feel that way again with anyone. 

A well formed calf muscle, the curve at the back of a knee, the strength of taught rippling thighs, all lead up to what had been nearly smashed into Stiles' face. "Who told you to stop without my permission? Your ass ruined a perfectly good mopey moment I was having. And _now_ I have images of your ass in my face for reasons other than accidental, because seriously, who wouldn't when it looks like Da Vinci and Michelangelo got into a pissing contest over who could sculpt a better one and then God had to intervene and make _that_ to shut them both up."

"Do I have to get God involved to shut _you_ up?" Derek deadpanned.

"When it comes to parts of your anatomy, most likely. Especially when they keep smacking me in the face. Don't think I forgot about the dick to the jaw this morning."

At that, Derek blushed and turned away with a little cough. "I stopped because there is definitely something on the ridge above Howl's. It could be an altar."

"How the hell did you know one would be here?" About a hundred feet ahead of them along a cliff face was a pool fed by a stream coming off the side of the mountain, an overhang of rocks and trees draped across it.

"An Altar would need a flat surface that no one in the pack would notice when we go on patrols. There aren't that many locations like that in Luna Point. This one seemed the most obvious to check out first, since Howl's is thought of as very safe territory."

"I don't understand, where’s the flat surface and the altar?" Stiles missed something that Derek said he saw, because all the ATF agent could see was a pretty place to swim.

"Look up." Derek inclined his head back toward the swimming hole, before heading towards it with a heavy sigh.

Stiles pulled his eyes away from Derek's ass long enough to see above the overhang. A more flat surface appeared to have been cleared away of some wild life. A passing glance wouldn't have picked it up, and if Derek hadn't pointed it out, Stiles wouldn't have even noticed it.

"How the hell do we get up there?" Stiles spoke to himself because Derek was already in the water moving towards the overhang.

"Okay, so two options. I jump in with all of my clothes on then hike around the rest of the day chafing, uncomfortable and making my skin condition worse - or I man up, drop trou, run for the water before Derek turns around and climb up after him so he can't see me at all, because nowhere in this chain of unfortunate events does Derek ever need to turn around, ever." Stiles psyched himself up. He had to do this. He had to go up there and look at a potential crime scene. 

The shirt came off, followed by the shoes, socks and overalls. The undies were all that was left so he shucked those with as much force as possible. He almost tripped himself in the process and thanked whatever luck left in his life that he avoided that embarrassment, because werewolves and evil sacrificing monsters could be the end of him, but underwear apparently killed more efficiently.

Realizing his nakedness after his internal monologue, Stiles made a beeline for the water and promptly fell in, tripping not on his Fruit of the Looms, but on some moss covered rocks. He sputtered and splashed recovering no dignity at all, until two hands wrapped around his waist hoisting him upright.

"Stand," Derek's voice was calm, but not reassuring considering the situation.

Stiles found his footing on the slippery silt covered rocks below the surface. As his eyes and mind cleared, facts of his situation filtered in. The water came up to his chest where he stood. Derek still held him from behind. Derek was touching the layers of Stiles' diseased zombie skin. Derek could see him. 

"My eyes are closed Stiles." Derek nuzzled into his neck briefly before letting go and backing away. 

Stiles lowered himself into the cool almost clear water till just his eyes peeked above the edge. His heart kept pounding past anyone's definition of safe, even though he knew he was when Derek held him, or maybe he felt safe for a fraction of a second in his arms and then lost his collective shit feeling all that warm firm skin sliding effortlessly against his. 

Derek swam back towards the overhang. A few quick treads of water made the physical distance between them match the irrational barriers Stiles kept putting up. 

Why couldn't Stiles enjoy being in someone's arms?

No. This wasn't the time for emo-crisis. He could lament over his cruel fate to Paramore and Radiohead when he got home. Stiles shook off the hope of ever having that much skin touching his bare body again. He walked through the water, then swam when he felt the bottom of the pool drop away from him.

-

The climb up the rock wall in high school looked more intimidating. Especially with the way Derek made short work of the incline, so Stiles followed the werewolf up. It wasn't a slow pace, and there were a few scratches in odd places that Stiles never quite thought of, but then again nude free climbing wasn't on his bucket list. 

By the time he reached the top, his muscles burned all over, and a hand reached out to help him over the last ridge of rocks. Stiles wobbled taking the help. It wasn't a secret that like this, most of his weight would be supported by Derek. "I don't want to go splat into the water behind me." 

"I wouldn't let you fall." Derek responded with such matter of fact-ness.

"I know."

Luckily his brain became busy processing 'the altar' and not the fact that Derek had his eyes open to essentially lift him up.

Black concentric circles formed an almost precise pattern around a stone slab. The slab had three candles, each of varying heights. They didn't look like normal candles and the black stuff the circles were made with gave Stiles the creeps. "What's the goop?"

"Not sure." Derek smelled the air. "Looks like Mountain Ash, but smells like blood."

"Human blood?" Stiles moved closer

Derek shook his head, taking a longer sniff of the area and wrinkling his nose in distaste. "I don't think so."

Actually, he said. "I don't think…" he never got the 'so' part out because he started growling and moved defensively in front of Stiles right before a dart zoomed through the air and wacked the werewolf in the back of the neck.

Unarmed and being attacked at a distance from an unknown location slapped Stiles hind brain into action. His instinct told him to get himself and Derek out of the line of fire. This unfortunately meant a jump back the way they came, over the ledge and into the water. Not the safest jump in existence but, definitely better than being shot at with most likely poison darts.

"Definitely poisoned" considering Derek's body keened towards the ground at an alarming rate.

Stiles slung one of Derek's arms over his shoulder supporting what weight he could when he saw another dart buzz past him. "Shit."

No real time for aiming, Stiles leapt as best as he could, hoping to at least clear the rock wall.

The sudden face full of water did nothing to distract from the stinging pain of a hard water landing. The impact also knocked Derek loose from his arms. Which… "Double shit."

Stiles dove down, reaching out blindly for anything. The first swipe of his arm, he could feel Derek's hair against his fingertips. He kicked hard with his legs to go deeper. The next pass of his arm hit maybe a shoulder. He gripped it latching onto cool skin. Stiles opened his eyes, praying that the sediment that had risen from their impact had settled enough for him to see what he was holding on to. 

Stiles jerked his hand back. He would have screamed if he wasn't underwater and seen a panicked immobile Derek a foot away from the girl's body.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm evil for leaving it there, but I promise to update very soon. :)


	10. Bodies

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologies and salutations for taking so long in this Chapter!

The majority of people first heard the howl of a wolf via Animal Planet. Stiles was no different. He vaguely recalled it from one bored afternoon channel surfing, a craft that dwindled with the rise of On-Demand TV services. At any rate, the live demonstration of such a haunting noise surpassed everything Stiles thought he knew. Perhaps because werewolf howls echoed from nearly human vocal cords, or maybe the circumstances of seeing a dead pack member and having no way of fixing it made the eerie sound reverberate through the air. It also didn't help it was the first noise he heard as they broke the water's surface. Derek's strained howl startled him enough that Stiles almost let go of the wolf for a second time.

Buoyancy helped with the whole staying a float thing, but the dead body literally at their feet wasn't helping rational thought processes, nor was the psycho with a blow gun in the area. 

"Can you move your body at all?"

Derek's neck muscles tensed while the rest of his body stayed frighteningly limp against Stiles'. 

"I can't even turn my head." Derek growled low with obvious frustration. His eyes darted around them, looking over to the ridge in front of them and a grassy pathway to their right. "Leave me. Head for that trail."

Stiles blinked a few times in rapid thought, and the hopes he could clear some of the water from his eyes. "In what way would it make sense to leave you behind?"

"In the sense that I am literally dead weight and someone is trying to kill us. Now let me go and run."

Stiles turned his back to the ridge, tightening his grip with the one arm he had around Derek's upper body. He leaned back to kick his legs as hard as he could, and with his free hand he stroked down through the water. Stiles wouldn't win any races, but he moved them to the overhanging rock wall pretty damn fast, considering.

"Let me go Stiles. Laura and my parents are on the way. They'll get me out faster if you lead them to my body." 

"Even if I was willing to let you go, blowgun guy's out there with the advantage of terrain. I'll be an open target before I make it."

"Not if you swim under the surface. You can…"

A howl, a scream, and some vicious sounding growling interrupted their argument. It seemed to be coming from above them near the altar, and it definitely gave the impressions of a fight.

Stiles reached out for one of the bigger rocks that stuck out from the wall. If he could hold onto that, maybe he could leverage Derek up and not be so vulnerable trying to tread water while holding up a paralyzed werewolf. His grip fumbled then failed when more blood curdling howls echoed from the direction of the path. Stiles panicked a little at the closeness of monsters. Logically, he knew they were the cavalry, but that didn't change the instinctual responses to being surrounded by vicious predators.

Derek sniffed the air, frowning at whatever he found. 

"What is it?" 

"Those last were from my Alpha and Laura."

"Who's on the ridge, then?" Because whoever fought up there might need help more than Stiles and Derek.

Derek crinkled his thick brows together even more, which said something since the werewolf seemed to naturally wear a frowny face. "Peter." 

"Remind me to thank creepy uncle when we get out of this. He's fighting off blow dart guy by himself?"

"I think so." Derek's slightly confused tone did nothing to make Stiles more assured of the situation. 

-

The body belonged to Beatrice, the young wolf Stiles had seen bound in the basement of Hale house last night. 

"I'm an officer of the law, I can't just not report a dead body!"

"An autopsy would be performed if anyone else is notified about this, so yes you can keep this incident to yourself." Talia did not appear to be in any mood to deal with Stiles, but this was his job to interfere and get involved with situations like this.

"What about the dead guy that attacked us? And what about the others that were found before this? You as much as already admitted that one of the victims was a werewolf, which means whoever did that autopsy and whoever is in on this case is already aware…Shit. Scott." Stiles sent Scott off to meet with Allison, who probably knew about werewolves. Did she think Stiles already knew because of his association with Scott? What was her motive for sending Stiles into a literal den of monsters? "I need to get to a phone. I need to warn Scott. She knows."

"Scott's already aware of the situation with the Argent girl. She won't make a move against him for now." Peter casually let that bit of information slip as he walked past hauling a dead body over his shoulder. 

"Excuse me, but you knew they knew about the..." Stiles made his hands form his best impersonations of claws, "and didn't think I should know? And you ask me to trust you! What the hell is actually going on here!?"

Talia all but leaned against her husband for a brief reassuring moment, and then regained the staunch composure that almost never left her. "Derek, Laura, take Stiles back to the main house. You have my permission to tell him everything. Also, inform family that there will be a burial rite for Bea this evening."

Okay, and here's the other thing: with all the dead bodies, mourning, and lies of omission, Stiles kind of forgot for a second that he stood naked in front of at least 5 people who were also naked. Granted his hang-ups were the least of his worries, but that didn't change that he started to let all of the adrenaline of the afternoon bleed into his emotional instabilities about the whole nudity subject. 

Almost as if on cue, Derek placed a shirt over his shoulders. At this, Stiles got a little angry, "Seriously? Are you some kind of mythical prince charming or something? And before you start glaring, I know I said that out loud." Stiles, of course, ignores his own babbling and grabs the remaining pile of clothes from Derek's hands to dress himself. Derek barely had his motor functions back and the first thing he did was defend Stiles' mental health as well as virtue. Derek could not be real, and with the current situation, Stiles did not have time for his perfectness messing with his head!

"I'm not perfect."

"Shut up!" Stiles stomped off toward the house. 

-

The man that attacked Derek and Stiles was dressed in pseudo military fatigues. That same crap most idiots wore on TV shows when producers/wardrobe wanted mercenaries for hire. Black knit shirt with black leather patches all over it and a pair of pants featuring way too many pockets. No respectable person of interest ever wore that nonsense. It was mainly wacko gun nuts or people with something to prove.

"Who was blow gun guy?" Stiles asked first, not even waiting for the door to close behind Derek and Laura in the basement of Hale House.

"We don't know who he was." Laura replied.

"Somehow you guys know when I'm lying, it’s only fair I'm calling bullshit on that one since you didn't even search his body for evidence of where he might have come from."

Derek leaned against the nearest wall. "He was a hunter."

"A hunter?"

Laura explained. "There are those that see us as monsters and nothing more. They hunt our kind and run in packs very similar to our own. As with Werewolves, some are better than others, some obey rules. Most don't. He was from a specific clan of hunters, going from just the equipment he used and the way he attacked you. The Argents." 

"Argents?! Allison is a hunter and you let me knowingly send Scott to meet with her?!" Stiles tried to move for the stairs. Derek blocked him while Laura talked.

"As Peter said, Scott knew the situation before he left. We told him he was going to meet with a hunter when we found out what her name was and are working to piece this together."

"Then tell me what you have so far." Stiles challenged.

"The Argents are working to frame us as murderers so they have an excuse to destroy Point Luna. It's the only thing that makes sense."

"What about the altars? If they wanted to frame you, setting up altars all over your territory over a long period of time doesn't stand to reason, nor does killing werewolves that both sides partially cover up from the authorities." Stiles bit his lip in thought for a moment. "The ritual your emissaries spoke of. Who would benefit from something like that? Do the hunters need that kind of magic for anything?"

Derek who hadn't said much since they left the woods, nearly shouted. "Hunters don't need reasons. They don't need to make sense. They kill."

"Well they didn't today. In fact they went out of their way to drug you instead. And in such a way that you would be unable to move. Deaton and Morell said something about the scent of pack being at the Altar site Laura found. Derek, did you smell anything other than pack before we were attacked?"

Derek scowled but didn't say anything.

"What did you smell Derek?" Stiles pressed.

"Derek?" Laura now asked with concern and maybe a little suspicion.

"Who did you both smell?" Stiles cornered the wolves staring them down with his best accusatory voice.  "Derek, you looked confused when that fight broke out on the ridge. Did you smell Peter before we were attacked?"

"I'm not accusing my uncle of something like this, Stiles." Derek's face hardened.

"Then don't. Let your Alpha decide." Talia spoke softly from the doorway. 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also naked sexy times seem to be coming in the next chapter. FINALLY Sheesh.


End file.
